Creamy White Chili
Type: soup
Vegetarian?: no
Difficulty: easy
This is one of my favorite soup recipes, because it's easy to make and always tastes great. It's creamy and spiced and very comforting and filling. You can swap out various ingredients as you prefer (I usually substitute a can of corn for one of the cans of beans). A great cold-weather meal!
Roasted Red Pepper Panini with Cilantro-Lime Mayo
Type: sandwich
Vegetarian?: yes
Difficulty: easy
This sandwich is bursting with fresh flavor! I love to have it in the spring or summer when I can get fresh tomatoes and arrugula and cilantro. I don't own a panini maker, but I usually just toast it in a pan for a few minutes on each side and that works great. It's pretty messy to eat, but so worth it.
Pork and Cabbage Dumplings (Chinese Jiaozi)
Type: Chinese dumpling
Vegetarian?: no (but could be with alterations)
Difficulty: medium skill, high time
Everyone loves Chinese jiaozi, right? They're very flexibe, since you can prepare them boiled, steamed, or fried, and you can choose your own fillings. Personally, this recipe includes my favorite filling combo: pork and cabbage, and I like to eat them boiled. These are not difficult to make in terms of skill, since you just mix the fillings, let them sit (I do overnight if I can), and then fill the wrappers, though there is a learning curve to making the final product attractive as well as properly sealed. The hardest part of this recipe is that it takes a long time to wrap each individual dumpling, so I recommend enlisting a friend or family member to help. Once you've prepared them all, though, you can freeze them and have them ready to boil/fry any time you want! I also like to make my own dipping sauce for them out of black chinese vinegar, soy sauce, and chili garlic paste. Yum!
Creamy Honey Mustard Chicken
Type: pan-fried chicken in sauce
Vegetarian?: no
Difficulty: easy
This dish always feels a bit decadent to me. The sweetness of the honey (I always add a bit more than the recipe calls for) and the saltiness of the bacon (definitely also more than the recipe calls for) in the cream sauce make for a rich flavor. It's not hard to make, though I do think it takes a bit longer than the listed 30 minutes. However, I also usually make a veggie side to go with it, to balance out the richness. Roasted broccoli or sweet potatoes are my go-to's for sides.
Roasted Eggplant and Crispy Kale With Yogurt
Type: roasted/mixed veggies
Vegetarian?: yes
Difficulty: easy
This is an amazingly refreshing summer dish that I found when looking for something to do with the specific veggies I was getting from the garden one summer: eggplant, tomatoes, cucumber, and kale. Eggplant can be hit or miss, but this recipe has to be one of my favorite ways to prepare it. I don't use mango poweder, so I just add extra cumin when roasting it, and it's so good that sometimes I skip the rest of this recipe and just make the roasted eggplant. But the tomatoes and cucumber yogurt really give it a fresh pop that I love. The biggest downside to this recipe is that you need to fry the kale fresh every time you eat if you want it to stay crispy. I usually just fry it all at the start and keep it in a sealed container for the next day, but it's always a bit stale by then. Perfectly fine, but the first batch is always best!
Creamy Skillet Tortellini with Sweet Potato and Spinach
Type: pasta and veggies
Vegetarian?: yes
Difficulty: easy
This is a simple go-to recipe for me. Easy to make, ingredients that won't go bad quickly (if you get the frozen spinach), healthy, and filling, this is an all around crowd pleaser! I always use cream instead of half and half, and dried rosemary is fine if you don't have fresh (though use half as much if you use dried). It sells itself as a fall recipe because of the sweet potatoes, but I think it's good at any time of year.
Chicken Tikka Masala
Type: chicken
Vegetarian?: no
Difficulty: medium
This was my first forray into cooking indian food, and still a favorite of mine (thouch I acknowledge that I make it in a pretty American way). A delicious creamy, spicy sauce makes this a rich dish that is great over rice, with or without a side. One of the things that makes this a bit more challenging is the number of ingredients needed. I have a robust spice cabinet and most of the other ingredients are things I tend to have on hand, but I know that may not be true for everyone. The other tricky thing is that you're supposed to grill the chicken before mixing it into the sauce. My trick for this is that I'll put a metal rack (I use a cooling rack) over a pan and bake it in the oven until cooked through, broiling for the last couple of minutes, and this works nearly as well as grilling. I've also baked it wihout the rack before, but be warned that this usually results in the meat being more boiled than baked. Still tasty, though!
Upside-Down Banana Bread
Type: dessert
Vegetarian?: yes
Difficulty: medium
I found this when looking for a basic banana bread recipe, and was surprised to find it simpler than I thought it would be for something that comes out looking so fancy. Basically this is just a normal banana bread, but with slices of banana on the bottom of the pan and a caramel glaze to drizzle on top. I list it as medium difficulty because it does take a bit more time and effort than the basic recipe, but the individual components of the recipe are all very straightforward. A tasty dessert that will make you look very fancy!